Now that the Board has acted on this recommendation--the Framework was formally adopted this past Midwinter 2016 after a year as a ‘filed’ document, and the Standards are now rescinded--we academic instruction librarians find ourselves in a world in which the Standards are no longer the active document put forth by our professional organization to use in developing our information literacy instruction practice.

That same spring I was invited to an appointed seat on the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy Advisory Board (FAB), which offered an opportunity to have my ongoing work on embracing and using the Framework reach a broader audience within the profession; I accepted this appointment, and am currently serving a 2-year term in this capacity. There are five volunteer members from different types of institutions, with Sharon Mader, ACRL Visiting Program Officer for Information Literacy, as our leader, making us a nimble group with diverse expertise in the area of information literacy instruction.

In light of the above context, I want to share some of the work of FAB, both accomplished and in process, in which I took/am taking a direct part. I will do this in two posts: the first is this one, and second will be published tomorrow.

So, what has FAB been doing?

The ACRL Board put out a second communication this week, in which they outline the next steps for training and professional development that are on the way for incorporating the Framework into local practice. I want to share in more detail what we in FAB have been working on, focusing in this post on past and ongoing offerings. Tomorrow’s post will focus on what to expect from FAB and ACRL in the near future. Keep in mind as well that there are two other ACRL groups named in that second communication from the Board whose Framework projects and initiatives complement ours, but won’t be addressed in detail here.

Listserv and Wordpress Website

FAB’s 2-year term began in July 2015. Even before that, ACRL set up the Framework listserv, as a space for practitioners to share ideas and support in their use of the Framework. As of this writing there are 1,623 subscribers.

FAB’s first order of business was to get into shape the Wordpress website that was created for disseminating information related to Framework professional development. It remains a work in progress, but we felt cleaning up the online space so we could focus the flow of helpful information about the Framework was an important priority.

Spotlight on Scholarship

As we did so, we began discussing useful and interesting ways to use that website to meet our group’s charge. I put forth the idea for a column / blog post series that would curate and describe the Framework literature being published at an increasing rate. It was a simple way to use the site’s functionality, and it created the space for me to constructively engage and keep up with the literature.

And so, in October 2015 the Framework Spotlight on Scholarship launched. Originally a weekly series, after the new year it became biweekly; it is currently on summer hiatus, but not for want of articles to review--if you could see my Google doc where I have future Spotlight articles curated, you’d see what I mean! It’s on hiatus because I am on sabbatical at my library, but most of my work in FAB continues. The tagline for the Spotlight on Scholarship is:

The “Framework Spotlight on Scholarship” column is a regular post series highlighting scholarship that uses, builds on, critiques, or responds to the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.

At present I have reviewed 21 articles for the column. I am hoping the column returns in the second or third week of August 2016.

Framing the Framework Webcast Series

Through Sharon Mader’s attendance at information literacy conferences throughout fall 2015, she identified the opportunity to begin formal (profession-level) conversations with rhetoric, composition, and writing studies scholar-practitioners, around pedagogical documents like the Framework for Information Literacy, the Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing [pdf], and the WPA Outcomes Statement for First-Year Composition, as well as the threshold concepts being proposed within and across both fields. These are connections that my research partner Teresa Grettano and I have been making, using, and building on since 2010 [pdf], on an individual level; the Framework was now creating the opportunity to make these connections more explicit at the broader level of our two fields.

In response to this identified opportunity, FAB planned, coordinated, and helped develop two ACRL e-Learning webcasts earlier this year under the umbrella title: Framing the Framework Series. Focusing on the theory and practice of collaboration between librarians and writing faculty, Teresa and I served as panelists for the first offering in January 2016. Our presentation focused on connections between the Framework for Information Literacy and the Framework for Success. I coordinated and convened our panel for that first webcast, and our writing studies colleagues Barry Maid and Barbara D’Angelo joined us by presenting on the connections between the Framework for Information Literacy and the WPA Outcomes Statement. In February 2016, a second webcast was presented in which collaborating librarian-writing instructor partners shared what this kind of collaboration using the Framework looks like in practice on their campuses.

There is a possibility FAB will develop more Framing the Framework webcasts in the future, but as soon as those presentations were complete we decided to shift our energies to prioritize offerings that would be freely available without a monetary cost to access.

Framework Adopted

FAB met for an in-person one-day retreat in December 2015, during which we compiled a comprehensive (16-page) “State of the Framework” report for the ACRL Board in time for their consideration at ALA Midwinter in January 2016. Using evidence from a variety of sources, we concluded the report with a recommendation that the Board act to fully adopt the Framework, changing its status from ‘filed’ to ‘adopted’. At their Midwinter 2016 meeting, the Board acted on this recommendation and moved to adopt the Framework as a formally endorsed document and approach to information literacy.

This important change in the Framework’s status empowered FAB to move forward with development of more concrete supports for using the Framework. In an effort to communicate to the profession the work we had done, and the work we had planned now that the Framework was adopted, we published an update in College & Research Libraries News in February 2016, in the “News from the Field” feature: see “Resources from the Framework for Information Literacy Advisory Board” section at that link (you will need to scroll some to find it).

While admittedly buried in the online version of that publication, the timing of this update signalled an important shift in FAB’s approach to our work. The confusion and ambiguity caused by the Framework’s ‘filed’ (yet not adopted) status was put to rest by the Board’s action. Our energies could now shift to more robust projects that will meet more long-term needs related to the Framework, including developing the following resources: the Sandbox repository for online educational resources related to the Framework; a freely available online Toolkit for self-paced professional development in support of using the Framework; and a call for curriculum developers who will be responsible for creating a licensed Framework “roadshow” for ACRL. (And yes, it’s still 5 volunteer ACRL member-leaders + 1 half-time ACRL VPO for Information Literacy working to bring these more complex projects to fruition!)

In my second post tomorrow [edited 7/1/16 to add link], I will describe these in-progress initiatives, as well as collaborative initiatives with other ACRL groups, in some more detail.